Father Yuriy Maksymyuk has been serving in a parish in the village of Rungury in the Kolomyia region for more than two decades, and is the dean of the Pechenizh Dean’s Office of the UGCC. And recently, he started working on a voluntary basis as a chaplain of the Kolomyia Regional Police Department.
The priest believes that police officers, given the difficult conditions of service, need psychological support and God’s word. This is reported by the "Halychyna" website.
If military chaplaincy in Ukraine is well developed, then chaplains in police units are the exception rather than the rule. Although in the United States they have been working since the 50s, and in neighboring Poland-since 2005. So now Yu. Maksymyuk is the first and only chaplain in the Carpathian police.
"Among my parishioners, there are police officers with whom I discuss not only issues of religious life, but also problems that concern them personally," says father Yuri. During such communication, I had the idea that it is worth giving law enforcement officers the word of God, and on the other hand – psychological relief, because they work for a small salary in extremely difficult conditions: stress, working overtime, often without days off and proper rest. Moreover, I really like working with young people. And here, the police have a fairly young team, the average age of employees of the unit is about 25 years. This job is close to me in spirit. I realized that these people need to be supported."
After learning that they are recruiting for an academy that trains chaplains for law enforcement agencies, Fr. Yu. Maksymyuk became its attendee. He believes that one has to learn non-stop and it’s never too late. He graduated from the Ivano-Frankivsk Theological Institute, completed postgraduate and doctoral studies, defended his dissertation, and also received a civil education at the Philosophy Department of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University.
Due to the pandemic, police chaplains’ classes were conducted remotely. Lectures were delivered by patrol police officers, military chaplains working in the war zone, as well as chaplains of the American and Canadian police. Among them is the chief chaplain of the FBI, in particular the SWAT special forces, Greg Young, a native of Kyiv.
After completing the three-month courses, the priest from Rungury appealed to the leadership of the Kolomyia Regional Police Department. His proposal for chaplain work with personnel was received positively there.
"This is a new challenge for me, and I am very grateful to the police leadership for their assistance and understanding," says father Yuri. Because indeed, when something is new, it is a little unclear at first, especially since it is a military entity, everything should be regulated by orders and instructions. But I see this work in the form of friendly, open communication so that the police can relax at least a little."
The priest told about one of such initiatives as "Coffee with the Chaplain". The police met with the chaplain, talked about football, family, other topics, and dumped the accumulated psychological burden. Another initiative – "Merciful Policeman" – is aimed at breaking the stereotypes of society’s attitude to the police.
"There are about a dozen poor people in the parish who can’t help themselves," the source continues. "So we went and distributed food packages to them. This will change people’s attitudes towards the police. Our society is already post-totalitarian, and there are still a lot of negative ideas among people about law enforcement agencies as punitive bodies. Meanwhile, the country is changing, and so are the police, but this is not as fast a process as we would like.
Since I have the opportunity to influence people’s opinions through my priestly ministry, I urge parishioners at sermons not to make offensive statements about law enforcement officers. Because when trouble happens, who is contacted in the first place? The police! I tell young people: go to work in the police, this is a noble cause, maybe today it has not yet been properly evaluated by the state, but the situation should improve over time."
On the eve of the day of defenders and defenders of Ukraine, a police chaplain held memorial services at the graves of law enforcement officers killed in the East, talked with their relatives. He believes that it is important for them both to support police teams and to communicate with those families who have experienced the same grief: joint prayers, rest.
"Father Yuri does a lot for psychological relief of personnel, improving the moral climate in our team," says police major Igor Gdychinsky, head of the Personnel Support Sector of the Kolomyia Regional Department of the Main Department of the NPU in the region. "If a police officer has any problems, in particular of a domestic nature, then he can communicate with the chaplain in an informal setting. All these things that concern him are discussed. The Department’s management is satisfied with such cooperation."